‘On the best way to emulate Bystron”: AfD MP now has a part-time job in Moscow | The new foreign policy spokesman for the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Matthias Moosdorf, is now teaching at a university in Moscow as a part-time job. For the ‘usual fees’, he assures us.

>The new foreign policy spokesperson for the AfD parliamentary group, Matthias Moosdorf, has been an honorary professor in Russia since September. In addition to his mandate in the Bundestag, the 59-year-old will now teach at the internationally renowned Moscow Gnesin Academy of Music for a fee. Moosdorf confirmed corresponding information from t-online. The school is close to the Kremlin and also represents its positions to the outside world in times of war.
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>Moosdorf succeeded Petr Bystron, who is being investigated on suspicion of money laundering and bribery, as foreign policy spokesperson for the AfD this year. According to media reports, Bystron is said to have received money from the pro-Russian disinformation network ‘Voice of Europe’.
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>‘By accepting the honorary professorship, I want to send a signal of understanding and give young people there the feeling that they are not left behind in Europe,’ Moosdorf told t-online. ’Music knows no ideological boundaries.’
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>Moosdorf, who was a professional musician and cellist before his time in the Bundestag, was awarded the title in Moscow in September. Photos of the event can be seen on the Gnesin Academy website. The headmaster of the school welcomes Moosdorf with warm words in an accompanying message: ‘This is really a great honour for us, a great pleasure!’ it says.
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>When asked by t-online, Moosdorf explains that he spent three days in Moscow in September and gave ‘a kind of inaugural lecture’ at the Gnesin Academy. According to Moosdorf, it is not yet clear how much the position will pay. ‘The structure of the rest of the contract is still open, but will be based on standard international fees,’ he said. He intends to teach chamber music to ensembles ‘once a quarter for several days’ in Moscow.
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>During his trip to Russia, Moosdorf also gave a concert as part of the Tchaikovsky Festival in St. Petersburg. The festival praises the event as a ‘symbol of co-operation between the strongest powers in the world of academic music’. The title of the concert was ‘Multipolar Music: Masters of the World Stage at the Hermitage’.
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>The term ‘multipolar world order’ is widely used in right-wing and far-right circles, where it promotes a shift away from Western democracies in favour of authoritarian powers such as Russia and China.
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>The Gnesin Academy, for which Moosdorf will now be working as a member of parliament, is regarded in classical circles as a training centre for cadres. It is close to the Kremlin and made headlines in spring 2022 for war propaganda.
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>One of its leaders appeared at a concert with pupils wearing a ‘Z’ on his jumper just 12 days after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The video of the concert was later published under the title ‘MuZikal sacrifice’. In Russian propaganda, the ‘Z’ symbolises support for Putin’s war aims in Ukraine.
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>Star violinist Roman Mints, a graduate of the Gnesin Academy, criticised the performance as ‘appalling manipulation’, as reported by [Deutsche Welle](https://www.dw.com/de/musikschule-gnessin-ukraine-krieg-video/a-61243232). ‘For me, this case is unfortunately significant: in a way, our school is the Russian state in miniature,’ said Mints. According to the report, parents in chat groups also sharply criticised the instrumentalisation of their children.
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>For Moosdorf, this is no obstacle. ‘I can’t recognise any political orientation of the Gnesin Academy,’ he told t-online, ’nor am I interested in it.’ His work is ‘exclusively dedicated to music as a global language of reconciliation and understanding’.
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>On Wednesday, Konstantin von Notz, deputy parliamentary leader of the Greens and chairman of the Parliamentary Control Committee, sharply criticised Moosdorf’s new employment: ‘Once again it becomes clear how close the wires are between Moscow and the AfD,’ he told t-online. Only the AfD itself knows how a foreign policy spokesperson can credibly make policy while being financed by dictatorships through honorary professorships.
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>‘If Petr Bystron’s successor is well on the way to emulating him, this shows once again that this is not a matter of individual cases, but of the AfD’s structural proximity to the dictators of this world,’ continued von Notz. The AfD is making less and less effort to conceal this.
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>Moosdorf has been the foreign policy spokesperson for his parliamentary group since Petr Bystron moved to the EU Parliament. He is therefore also head of the AfD’s foreign affairs working group, which has a pro-Russian orientation. At the end of August, the Munich Public Prosecutor General’s Office applied for Bystron’s immunity in the EU Parliament to be waived due to investigations into suspected money laundering and bribery.

*Translated with DeepL.com (free version)*